Problems? There’s no problems. You WILL NOT talk about the problems.
By jimrob | September 20, 2008
I loathe RFID technology for a myrriad of reasons. Widespread disruption of the radio spectrum, privacy invasion, the sheer lack of necessity of it, etc. Now I have a new reason: The people behind RFID don’t want you to know how poor it is, and will take legal action to prevent you knowing it.
Fresh from their success at Nvision, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman – better known as the Mythbusters – have found themselves in the middle of a global conspiracy conducted by major credit-card corporations. At least, if Adam’s comments at a recent conference are true.
According to CNet, Savage was asked by an audience member at an un-named conference why the team – which host a show aimed at testing common myths in an often explosive manner – had never tested the well-publicised vulnerabilities of RFID chips, including the well-known (and well-cracked) MiFare Classic.
In a video of the conference, Savage details a call which took place between Tory Belleci – a member of the show’s B-team – and Texas Instruments as part of the research carried out ahead of a planned RFID-busting episode. Sadly, Belleci got more than he bargained for: as well as Texas Instruments, the call featured the chief legal councils for American Express, Visa, Discover, and “everyone else” which left the team feeling “way, way out-gunned.”
In a fit of foot-stomping reminiscent of the recent court-ordered ban on a talk regarding the vulnerabilities in the MiFare Classic-based CharlieCard transport payment system, the Discovery Channel – which owns the show – were told in no uncertain terms that “they were not going to air this episode talking about how hackable this stuff was, and Discovery backed way down, being a large corporation that depends on the revenue of the advertisers.” Savage continues with the explanation that the idea of an RFID-busting show is now “on Discovery’s radar and they won’t let us go near it.”
-Bit-Tech
Don’t you just love this? Money talks, and truths about faulty products being shoved down our throats by greedy, immoral businessmen get walked out the door by lawyers.
Topics: Business Gone Mad |
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
